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Wales fees may be unlawful

14 December 2004

The introduction of variable top-up fees in Wales may be unlawful, claims the higher education union, AUT.

In its submission to the Welsh Assembly Government’s independent study chaired by Professor Teresa Rees, the AUT claim that the Government of Wales Act 1998 does not allow the National Assembly to create inequality.

The AUT research points out that the individualisation of 'debt risk' to students will create greater and more disproportionate inequality for particular groups of students.

Mark Oley, AUT spokesperson in Wales, said:

'The major problem associated with the debate over top-up and variable fees is that it has ignored the impact of debt risk on individual students. Our research points out that for women graduates, for example, debt risk will be proportionately greater as a result of discrimination in pay by employers.

'Paradoxically, they will also be discriminated against as a result of having children as they face a reduction in salary through maternity provisions. Legislation such as the part-time workers regulations also lacks any real bite and female graduates may have to reduce their hours - leading to both lower incomes and as a direct result of this an extension of the debt risk over a longer period of their working life.'

The research also points out:

that mature students in Wales, often tied by family links to a given geographical area with low paid employment face greater debt risk;

that black and minority ethnic students, who face greater pay inequality than white graduates, face extended debt risk problems;

that students with disabilities, the majority of whom work on the lowest pay rates of all, would be hardest hit.

The AUT argues that the introduction of variable fees in England has placed the Welsh Government in a precarious position: 'The Government of Wales Act s48 and s120 impose a duty on the Welsh Government to ensure equality of opportunity to all people’s in Wales. Given that debt risk will attack the very root of this duty by creating greater inequality, AUT is recommending that, for the first time in the UK, a series of studies on debt risk and equality of outcome are undertaken before any final decision is made.

'That way, the Welsh Government can determine for itself whether variable fees will create equality of outcome or whether they need additional powers, as in Scotland, which will allow them to develop a system that is for more equitable and just for all students and that permit greater resources for higher education in Wales.'